Pwn Up: Elegy of Nerdiness

Ever had a moment so nerdy that you needed to tell the Internet about it? Send your submissions to dorklypwnup at gmail.

When my brother and I were little, our parents would send us to bed early and interrupt our gaming sessions. We did not approve of this, so often we would wait until our parents went to sleep at the other end of the house before we got up and played again. I have fond memories of things such as beating Sonic Adventure: DX on the Gamecube right around dawn. And always with the sound off. I missed out on some great music just to ensure my parents never woke up.-Mitchell

I was taking the SAT and on one of the questions asked me to define the word "elegy." I guessed the answer was "a mournful song or poem, usually relating to death", thanks to the Elegy of Emptiness. Thanks for getting me into college, Majora's Mask.-Jason

After Pokemon X & Y were announced, I got so excited that I decided to go out and buy a used copy of Pokemon Diamond, the only generation I still hadn't played yet. When I booted up the game, the old save file showed a playtime of 115 hours, and a Pokedex count of 493. That's every single Pokemon in the game up to that generation. And to top it off, the person named their character Dawn, keeping it true to the original.

I sat there for ten minutes, unable to bring myself to erase such a magnificent save file. The thought of it made me feel so guilty, I even contemplated returning the cartridge to the store and getting a different one. But I finally pulled the plug. I erased the old data and started a new game, and as a memorial to the old owner, I named my character Dawn.-Kevin

So, as any sensible gamer would, I started to play Fallout on finals week. I had studied so I was gonna be fine, or so I thought. When I walked into my English final, i hear a bunch of my classmates talking about the oddly specific research essay that our teacher gave us (but which I forgot about by, you know, watching Supermutants being blown into bits in slow-mo). I was sweating and my heart was racing, and after doing the rest of the test, I saw the topic on the final page: Gangs and its correlation to corruption. My immediate thought was: "Tunnel Snakes and the Vault Overseer". I managed to pull a full essay about the tutorial of Fallout out of my ass. At the end, the grade was not so bad, and I still keep the essay as a trophy.-Marcelo

A few days before Gears of War 3 was released I was rushed into the Intensive Care Unit due to an abscess tooth that almost closed my throat off completely. The doctors told me if I had waited another 4 or 5 hours I would have died. After being put out for the first few days I woke up the day of September 20th, and realized that I was in the hospital with a tube in my throat and no chance of making the midnight launch of Gears of War 3. As a hardcore Gears nut this upset me more than my current predicament. Luckily my brother went to the launch and got my game and beanie. After having the tooth removed and the tube removed from my throat a few days later, I begged to be let out so I could play Gears. After being advised that they should keep me under observation to ensure no further complications, I actually talked my doctor into letting me out directly from ICU. But first he advised me that the steroids that were keeping me alive would leave me incredibly depressed over the next week or two due to withdrawals. I went home and immediately started playing Gears 3 enjoying every second of it. Due to my motion sickness from the events of the prior week my girlfriend took our son to the drug store to pick me up some Gravol while I played onward. She returned right after the moment where [REDACTED  (something sad happens)] to find me bawling my eyes out. She thought it was the withdrawal depression, which I should have said it was.-Kyle

I started classes back up a few days ago and noticed our side of the hall had new name tags featuring Nintendo characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. One stuck out like a sore thumb. It had Pikachu and Mario name tags, but there seems to have been a real missed opportunity here -Shane